People often use terms like, our inner-genius and our highest-self. I'd like to believe that this comes from a place of knowing that we are much more than just our body.
The Ego Our ego is influenced by situational-change in environment and it’s composed by our past experiences, pride, fear, patterns, and it's strongly wavered by survival instincts. As we evolve, we cultivate personalities that best fit in different situations. We may express ourselves differently at work than we would with our friends and then differently with our friends than we would with our romantic partner; we have this understanding of etiquette. Although this is much appreciated, we can also compromise our reality with triggers and autopilot behaviors in situations where it’s not as effective. For example, there will be events where we may feel attacked even when it has no threat to our life, the ego may still perceive it as a threat to thyself. Our sense of pride tends to influence our perception of what we may consider as a threat and we begin to fight for the validation the ego wants to gain in terms of respect, fear, liked etc. Our ego can almost blind our vision to many points of view in exchange for a point of view that gives it the best possibility of survival. The ego will go as far as the mind will let it. The Mind Our mind is a powerful operation and it’s a tool that helps us react in situations to survive or respond in order to reflect and re-evaluate. . There will be moments when we interact with people and we forget that what we perceive isn’t the same as how others perceive it. We may often convince ourselves that what we feel or say in moments of defense is our truest perspective, I mean why would we feel the way we feel if it weren’t. Then, after the chemicals that triggered this reaction wear out and the body relaxes, our thoughts shift. We calm down into a different state that will bring about different feelings and thoughts about that situation where we will then decide to do one of two things; allow our ego to re-convince our conscience (the decision maker) that we hold the truest perspective, or we can choose to open ourselves up to the full-truth of any situation. Spiritual Eyes I experienced difficulty in finding words adequate enough to communicate what I’ve learned about this. As I finished journaling and praying about a moment in my life where I believe to have used my spiritual eyes, it was more clear to me. I am reminded that this notion is a process and that using our spiritual eyes will require humility and faith. In times where I am caught up with my point of view, I now have this understanding that I must surrender it and yes, it feels just like you would surrender in battle. You put your white flag up in order to invite a perspective much bigger than your own, a perspective that may have nothing to do with you yet it involves you. Your spiritual eyes remind you that there are plans in effect that are much bigger than our own and we are merely a part of this much bigger and beautiful plan. We may at times be judged unfairly so that someone can gain wisdom through it or to strengthen our spirit so that we know how to persevere in tribulations. Our spiritual eyes remind us that there are things happening not known to us and maybe we will never know of them but that it must not come at the cost of our character. At times we think, “well, if this is how the world is, then maybe who I am doesn’t benefit me. Let me seem more threatening so that others won’t mess with me” and we start to rebuild our ego and compromise our authentic selves. Our spiritual eyes remind us that we are all truly connected in a way beyond what we can see with our vision alone. Message from Victoria I hope that while we manifest our soul through our vessel of a body that we continue to have the courage to surrender to this unknown and preserve our truest selves. That aligning to our soul’s expression is much more holy than the influence of our ego.
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Energy, what is energy? If we’re going to speak on energy, let's first reflect on what it actually is. Science.org quotes, “...it has magnitude, but no direction. Energy is conserved, which means it can change from one form to another, but isn’t created or destroyed”. This insight starts to turn the wheels in my head around how we can actually embrace and channel energy.
CREATING THE ENERGY WITHIN As human beings we are matter and energy, scientists like to say that we have what is called rest-energy. We at any moment can use our energy to either kick a ball lightly or kick a ball with intensity, this energy is in us waiting for us to take hold of it. If we walked around day to day, moment by moment knowing that we had this rest-energy just waiting for us to create something with it, how different would we be about having an intention over it? I think about the part of the quote that states ,“..it can change from one form to another”, this part reminds me of the ability we have in creating. If we have energy within us, then we choose to create our energy as we wish. As I acknowledge this truth, I can't ignore another that says we are a byproduct of our environment but I'll modify that and say, our energy is a byproduct of the energy of our environment. If the energy of our environment is not ideal, how do we navigate it? EMBRACING ENERGY This, I believe, is where the challenge comes, where our spirit grows stronger. I heard a sermon in church and the pastor said, “Be in the world, not of the world”. I think this is the mental state we must possess when embracing energy, knowing that we are in the energy of the environment but it does not mean we must be one with that energy when it does not serve us well. So, how do we do this? When we embrace, we must acknowledge and accept. Acknowledge the energy, recognize the friction to yours and accept it. Emphasis on the accepting, this does not mean we look down on it or change it, this part of the process simply means to observe it and embrace it. We observe it as outside of ourselves. This reminds me of times where I enter a room and find myself feeling extremely anxious. I have to remind myself that it’s the environment I’m in and it does not mean I must claim that energy as my own, this part is important. It’s important not to confuse ourselves that it is our energy but instead that it’s energy we can feel around us. Once we accept it as our energy, we the creators give permission to allow our energy to change its form and become the energy in the environment. After embracing the energy, the eye opening and extremely transformative part takes place. CHANNELING OPTIMAL ENERGY To better translate the different parts of us that affect this energy we possess, I'd like to bring up the 4 dimensions of our energy. The physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy and spiritual energy. I’d like to believe that we are channeling optimal energy when we are taking care of these dimensions of our energy. We will continue to be of any energy that we come face to face with if we are not implementing practices to build these 4 parts. Everyone has different ways to build these parts and our goal should be to create our own. If you’d like someone to search and facilitate that with you, please send me a message. For now, let’s get back into channeling the energy we have and being a light to the environments we enter. We must keep repeating the part of the quote that reminds us that energy has magnitude, it can change its form from one to another. In order to begin, we must first detach from the outside energy by not giving it anymore attention and start to redirect our attention to the energy that will be responsible for the domino effect; our own. We channel by focusing our attention to the energy we want to create within so that we can transmit it out like a light, imagining that the more we focus on it the stronger it gets. This does not mean the energy of the environment will change instantly so don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t but it means you can start the domino effect of the change. For example, maybe you interact with someone who is influenced by the energy of the environment and you smile, or you give a compliment and maybe you do an act of kindness, you have now channeled that energy. Channeling energy is not to hold it within, it’s for the purpose of sharing it and influencing it from one form to another. MESSAGE FROM VICTORIA We channel energy intentionally or unintentionally, but when we do this intentionally, I have faith and knowledge through personal experience that it can be powerful. I challenge us to ask ourselves throughout the day, “What energy am I creating within and how can I channel it?”. Peace and love be with you all! We’ve heard how important it is for our health to manage our stress. American Psychology Association states, “... long-term ongoing stress can increase the risk for hypertension, heart attack, or stroke”. We can feel how stress physically affects us but have we ever reflected on how even the tiniest moments of stress can affect our behavior? Now, I do want to say there is a healthy level of selfishness, the kind where we are honest about our limits and we set boundaries. On the other hand, we know selfishness can be a major factor in the lack of care and attention we give to relationships. Now, how exactly are stress and selfishness connected?
BEING IN A RUSH Being in a rush changes our whole aura and I will add that I believe it has a lot to do with the stress that comes with it. Have you ever given your order to a waitress or waiter while they were in a rush? They seem disconnected and uninterested in giving you recommendations on what to order. You leave the restaurant feeling as though your experience didn’t matter. I myself have rushed from one point to another to meet a friend after work and I noticed my energy shift to being considerate of my surroundings to being self-centered on what I need to do. All of a sudden the person crossing the street annoys me now that I’m in a rush or the person driving 10 mph over speed limit is driving too slow for me. Isn’t this something? Haha. Masterclass.com referred to a sickness in an article called, Hurry sickness; being in a constant rush that results in stress and anxiety. This urges me to be mindful in moments I want to rush and ask myself if it’s worth being self-centered and inconsiderate of others? Thinking of being in a rush leads me to wonder how this correlates to the time we perceive we have to give to others. TOO BUSY I remember being in a place in my life where I felt like my schedule was full of so many things I needed to do. These ‘things’ were all tied to what I felt I should do or had to do and it all brought stress in my life. I saw family time as a “maybe”, going to church turned into attending virtually or making a deal with God that I’d pray in place of it, and doing what I loved was out of the question. I was in this cycle of feeling like I had to be busy doing something and being burnt out, then being stressed about being burnt out so I’d get busy all over again. I couldn’t see this self-sabotaging habit at the time. On the rare occasion I'd given my schedule permission to make room for someone else, I was shocked to learn the problems they were facing. I’d tell them, “You should have reached out to me!” ALL of my family and friends said the same thing, “I just figured you were too busy and I didn’t want to bother you”. It pained me that they felt like they didn’t want to burden me with the support they needed. Jodi Clarke, a licensed counselor wrote a blog about stress management, “If your work-life balance is thrown off, you may experience burnout, feeling overworked, exhausted, and disconnected from your social and/or family life”. This illusion of not having enough time made me self-absorbed and it came at a cost in my disconnection with others. I knew my mindset had to change. FINDING A BALANCE THAT CAN'T BE MEASURED Oftentimes we think of balance as an equal portion of whatever it is you have to get or need to give. What if balance was more than just scaling everything so that it appears balanced at all times? I’d like to introduce a term I thought of while writing this, intuitive-balance. Before you start burning your planner, let’s get this straight, priorities and time management matter! Finding a strategy to manage your time after defining your priorities is going to be key, the intuitive part comes after. We all know that every day may have its similarities but they all may have their own ups and downs because the common denominator is ALWAYS going to be us. We may have different needs on different days and this is where intuition comes in. I encourage you to be O.K. with maybe only giving a certain activity 30% of your energy that day because your intuition pulls you to reach out to that family member you keep thinking of. I invite you to prioritize destress methods like meditation, physical activity, art expression etc whenever you feel that you need a little more of that during your day. If this makes you a little uneasy about how you’ll be able to add these like I was, set a timer! Your intuition is the part of us that others have called our inner-genius. They’re our spiritual eyes that see beyond what our physical eyes can’t; trust it. Having a way to manage stress fulfills the part of you that thinks you have to run with it. Get free and start connecting to life again. MESSAGE FROM VICTORIA I know having to start this new process may be new and confusing but don’t worry it works best without a plan at first. Trust yourself in that you will see that it is more familiar to you than you thought. If you’d love a place to start, I’d love to meet you through email or a virtual session to get you started. Peace and Love be with you, always! |
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